It uses the same artwork as the UK cover. I like it, though I prefer the tight typeface on the UK version. It’s interesting to note that they’ve removed the fellow standing on the platform watching the blimp/ship/thing. Weird.

Big change here. I actually think the US cover executes the idea much better than the UK cover. The ship looks more impressive, the setting more interesting and the general perspective of the scene is a lot more realistic. It reminds me of Stephan Martiniere‘s work onThe Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham. That said, I prefer the grimy typeface used on the UK cover, which stands out from the crowd better than the typical san-serif font of the US cover. Plus, Black Lung Captain is a barely different, but way cooler title than The Black Lung Captain.

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Wow. That’s a cool cover for THE BLACK LUNG CAPTAIN – much better than the awkward looking piece of art that I have on my copy of the book. I like how it tries to be different from RETRIBUTION FALLS while keeping some resemblance, since I personally think that the UK covers are too similar.

Also, it’s funny that you would prefer the typeface on the UK edition – I don’t. In my opinion it just looks goofy. I much prefer the font above, as bland as it may be (though of the two the more opaque one on BLC is better).

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Aidan Moher and LEC Book Reviews, Tor.com Fantasy. Tor.com Fantasy said: New Blog Post — The US cover art for RETRIBUTION FALLS and THE BLACK LUNG CAPTAIN by Chris Wooding: http://bit.ly/fHk5QH […]

Black Lung Captain is a better title than The Black Lung Captain but despite that image on Amazon, the UK edition does contain the definitive article: the “the” appears just above the “c” of black.

I’m torn on the covers themselves because neither are very good but the US font is atrocious. The composition of the US Retribution Falls is also completely off, by moving the font and removing the figure they’ve destroyed the balance of the cover.

I like the US cover to The Black Lung Captain, it suits the book and it’s nice that although it’s a similar style to Retribution Falls, and the colour difference makes it stand out much more than the US one.

As for Retribution Falls – I don’t like the way they’ve removed the figure and moved the airship closer to center, it just feels wrong compared to the original.

The fonts are ok, they remind me of the UK Trade fonts (http://tinyurl.com/2fh852q). I prefer the new style that Gollancz are going with, they’re just much better suited for the books.

Those are both great. I actually like Retribution Falls without the guy standing on the cover. I thought he marred the image myself. But wow, those are great. Makes me want to rush out and pick up both of these immediately.